


In Time

by Likesummerrain (AverageBunny)



Category: MCU, Marvel
Genre: F/M, Reincarnation AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 11:02:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4135035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AverageBunny/pseuds/Likesummerrain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soulmates exist. In every sense, they exist, and we know they do. Some are as simple as love at first sight, meeting a person once and knowing that they’re the one. Others are more complicated. They are stories and anecdotes woven together over centuries of meetings. Those are the rarest of soulmates in this world. The ones who would find each other in any condition, in any era, in any form, and know with all their heart that this is the person to whom they’ve sewn their soul to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Time

**Author's Note:**

> For the Project Romanoff Mini Bang!

He sees her on the other side of the road one morning, staring up at the billboard intently, the breeze tossing her red curls in front of her face, her black dress swaying at her knees.

He keeps looking at her, like he can’t tear his eyes away. Before he knows it he’s run his foot into a fire hydrant,

"FUCK!” he yells, finally looking at the path in front of him. He turns back quickly, hoping the red headed lady didn’t hear him. He sees her staring at him, the corner of her mouth raised in a smirk. He puts up an apologetic hand, but she walks away. “Nice going, Barnes,” he mumbles to himself. When he looks back up she’s gone.

“You might want to put some ice on that.” He jumps back when he realizes she’s standing right in front of him.

“Right,” he says, still confused as to how she got there.

“It’ll help the swelling.” She smiles at him and walks away before he can ask her anything else.

He walks away feeling unusually warmer than before. He looks back, hoping to catch one last glimpse of her but sees only an empty street.

He thinks of her throughout the day, flashes of red curls and her smile in moments alone. He swears he’s seen her before this morning but he can’t quite place where.

“Your foot seems to be doing better.” He’s startled, half a sandwich in his mouth, fishing his phone out of his pocket. He looks up to red curls again and the same smile, quickly putting the sandwich away, clearing his throat.  

“Oh, I...uh, yeah,” he stutters out. “Yeah it’s...it’s fine now. Thanks.”

“But no ice,” she says.

“Nah, didn’t get a chance to. Busy day.”

“You work?” she asks, walking alongside with him, arms crossed behind her back.

“Yeah, I uh, I’m an EMT,” he responds.

“That’s nice,” she says softly.

“You?” he asks, quickly.

“Yeah,” she responds. He waits for her to continue, but she doesn’t.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name?” he asks.

“It’s because I didn’t give it,” she says with a wink.

“Right…”

“I’ll see you later James,” she says, walking away, looking back to give him a small smile. He walks the rest of the way to his building before realizing he hadn’t given his name to her.

He dreams of those same red curls that night, the same face and the same features, but she was different.

She wore all black and held a blood-covered sword in her hand, from a sword it became a gun, from a gun it was his hand.

She held his hand, her grip tightening but he didn’t pull away. He kept his hand in hers, looking into her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered before letting go.

He wakes up in a cold sweat on the floor, covers still on the bed. He wipes his face and notices the marks on his forearm. A handprint branded into his left arm, still burning him.

He’s had this dream before, it looks different but there is always blood on her, and she always says sorry before she leaves.

He knows this woman, and she knows him, but a dream cannot be the only place they’ve met.

He walks to work the next morning, looking around him, hoping that she’ll be there too. He considers running into the fire hydrant again just to see if it would bring her to him. Seeing nothing, he drops his shoulders wondering how he could find her again.

“Watch out.” He whips around and sees her standing there, hands behind her back. This time she’s in a red dress and her curls are pinned back. “You almost hit the hydrant again.”

“It’s you,” he said, the air growing warmer around them. “You’re here. Again.”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Are you going to tell me your name today?” he asks her, stepping around the hydrant.

“Not yet,” she says, smiling slightly, walking away.

“When do I get to?” he asks following her. “You already know mine even though I never told you.” She stopped and faced him.

“You did tell me, you just don’t remember.”

“I only met you yesterday, I would remember if I told you.”

“But it wasn’t yesterday,” she says.

“What’re you talking about?” he asks, jogging to catch up with her.

“You don’t remember do you?” she asks, stopping in front of him. “Any of it?”

“Remember what?” She bites her bottom lip and looks him up and down.

“Again,” she mumbles.

“Again?” he repeats.

“Again,” she says a little louder this time. “You’ll see. Soon.”

“That sounds vaguely threatening.”

“You’re always threatened by something,” she says lightheartedly.

“I am not,” he says defensively.

“Then why are you getting worked up?” she asks with a smirk.

“Because you act like you know me when I literally only met you yesterday,” he answers quickly. She keeps walking, a new spring in her step. “Natalia!” he finally shouts. She stops abruptly and freezes in place.

“What did you call me?” she asks.

“What?”

“Did you call me Natalia?” she asks, turning back around.

“No? Why would I call you that?” he asks, confused. “Wait, is that your name?”

“How did you know to call me Natalia?” she continues, walking closer to him.

“I...I don’t know. I just...I just said it?” he replies, confused. He scratches his head trying to figure out where he got the name from. “Is Natalia your name?” he asks again. She smiles at him, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

“Yes,” she says softly.

“It’s a beautiful name,” he says. She only nods.

“Let’s go,” she says quickly, turning back around and walking quickly. He follows her out of instinct, running to catch up with her.

She leads him to a small park, empty save for the two of them.

“Do you remember this?” she asks.

“Yeah?” he replies. “I’ve been here a couple of times…”

“No, think about it,” she tells him. “Just think for a minute.”

“Other than the time I had a really bad date here?” he jokes.

“You don’t remember this, do you?”

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I...I don’t. Should I?”

“I suppose that’s a good sign…,” she trails off.

“What?”

“You don’t remember everything, not the park, not what it means. But you remember my name. It’s a good sign.”

“How? I mean, a good sign for what?”

“That you’ll be safe.”

“Can you cut the whole vague answering thing please?” he asked exasperatedly. “It’s kinda giving me a headache now.” Her smile vanishes and he can see her panic slightly.

“Kiss me,” she says quickly, looking at him.

“What?” he asks, taken aback.

“If you want, of course,” she adds. “If you kiss me, I guarantee you’ll start to remember. This headache that you have will go away and everything will start to make sense.”

“Um,” he starts, “I’m not saying that kissing you would be a bad thing, I just don’t understand how it would help?”

“Do you trust me, James?” she asks, stepping closer.

“Yes,” he says immediately, surprised at his own response.

“Then kiss me,” she says quieter, now standing inches away from him. He nods, holding her face in his hands gently, bringing his own down to meet her lips.

Her lips are familiar to his, and he knows that this has happened before. He runs his hands through her hair and she wraps her arms around his neck.

There in the park they kiss each other like they had for centuries and he remembered each one vividly. She pulls back slowly,

“Do you remember now?” she asks softly. He nods, trying to speak before he feels his knees give out beneath him.

The next thing he sees is all white. She’s dressed in all white too. He feels cold, but he looks up at her and feels warmer.

They stood on fresh fallen snow and they whispered to each other.

Her hair was darker in this dream, and longer, and her skin seemed even whiter because of it.

She held his hands, even the one that wasn’t human. The arm felt heavy on his shoulder, but  even through the cold metal he could feel her touch. He could feel her closer than ever in that dream, as though she were right there with him.

In a second she was gone and replaced by a different girl, but it was still her. He knew that, it was still the two of them, standing in an open field. She had brown hair this time, his skin was darker too.

He stared into her eyes and she disappeared, and now he was a little boy, standing on a playground as she led him away from the swings. Her blonde pigtails bounced with each step she took and he gladly let himself be dragged away.

In another second she stands far away from him, in a white dress with fiery red curls that fall down on top of the fabric. He walks to her and the closer he gets the better he can see wings.

They’re white, just like the dress, and they stand taller than her, and longer than he can see.

He tries to reach out and touch her, but she vanishes in a blaze of fire.

“James?”

He jolts upright.

He’s in his bedroom now, drenched in sweat.

“Are you alright?” He looks over at her, sitting on the edge of his bed, holding his hand.

“How am I here?” he asks, out of breath.

“I brought you here,” she says.

“How did you know where I lived?” he asks.

“That’s not important.”

“Then what is?” he asks, laughing dryly.

“Do you remember anything?” she asks, watching him closely. He wracks his brain, and the images of his dreams start to come back to him.

“A lot,” he says.

“Anything specific?” she prompts.

“Wings,” he says. “You had wings, and they were huge. I tried to go to you but you were gone before I could get to you.”

“You saw my wings?” she asks, her voice cracking.

“Yeah,” he says.

“Your wings, they’re always the last thing I see. I’ve seen them before this, and when I see them you’re always gone and I’m always too late,” he explains.

“So you do remember,” she says, her eyes welling up. He looks at her, and this time he doesn’t see just her. He sees a light surround her, surrounding them both.

“You came back for me,” he says suddenly.  

“Yes,” she says, crying now. He felt tears trail down his cheek. “I came back.”

“And I remember it all now,” he says. “I remember everything. I remember us.” She rests a hand on his cheek.

“James.”

“It has to end again, doesn’t it?” he asks, putting his own hand over hers. She bites her lip, nodding. “Because I saw your wings.”

“That’s our punishment,” she whispers.

“Why are we punished?” he asks, pulling her closer.

“Because we broke the rules,” she tells him.

“Because we chose each other, you mean,” he said. She closes her eyes, letting the tears fall. “I don’t regret it,” he says after a moment.

“Neither do I.” She leans into him, and he runs his hand through her hair, playing with the curls.

“I’m tired of this web,” he says. “I’m tired of us being so close to each other and then being too far from each other.”

“It’s the way we have to be. I don’t want to leave you. Not now, not since I just got you back,” she says, her voice faltering.

“You’ll come back, though,” he says after a while.

“You know I can’t promise that,” she replies quietly.

“But I know you will. You have been, time and time again. We always come back to each other.”

“Even if I do, James, you wouldn’t find me immediately.”

“Then I’ll keep looking for you.”

“You’d spend another lifetime looking for someone you don’t even remember,” she said, smiling a little.

“I’d spend ten lifetimes looking for you,” he whispers, kissing her forehead.

“James…”

“Nat,” he interrupts. “I don’t care. I don’t care if we don’t find each other until I’m old and wrinkly. We’ve found each other before, haven’t we? I would go to the ends of the earth to find you again.”           

"Mortal men think they’re unstoppable,” she says with a small laugh.

“When it comes to you I am,” he replies.

“Angels were never supposed to fall in love with mortals,” she tells him. “We were never supposed to meet in the first place. We had limits and we crossed them.”

“I don’t care,” he says.

“It was wrong from the start, it was never going to end happily, you know that.”

“But we have centuries of memories, together,” he says, taking her face in his hands again. “Who else can say that?”

“What makes you think I would be the same? What makes you think that you’d be looking for the same Natalia?”

“Because I’d know you, even if your name was Betty and you lived in a hut in Antarctica, I’d know it was you. We’re connected.”

“I might not be the same. I could change forms if I wanted to,” she tells him.

“I would still know it’s you.” She kisses him again, tangling her fingers in his hair. She ends the kiss but rests her forehead on his.

“I have to go now,” she says, voice barely above a whisper.

“Please don’t,” he pleads. She pulls away, standing up and straightening herself out.

“Just know that I love you, no matter where we are or if we ever meet again, I’ll always love you.”

“And I’ll keep loving you until we meet again,” he tells her. she rubs his knuckles with her thumb absentmindedly.

“You should close your eyes,” she tells him, pulling her hand out of his.

“We’ll find each other again,” he tells her.

“It’ll all just be a matter of time,” she finishes. He smiles and he knows that they have made that promise before. He closes his eyes, still smiling.

“I love you Natalia,” he says, letting go.

“I love you James,” she replies.

He sees a bright light around him and a warm breeze blow against him and a sense of calm comes over him. He breathes in deeply and smells salt in the air.

When he opens his eyes he’s on a beach with the sun shining directly above him. The water rushes up against his ankles, tickling his bare skin.

“Might wanna be careful,” he hears. “Don’t wanna get a sunburn, now.”

“Nah, I’ll be fine,” he replies. He looks up at the woman who spoke, her dark hair pulled up high on top of her head. Her bathing suit is red with white polka dots all over it, sunglasses resting against her hair.

“New around here?” she asks.

“Yeah, just got here today. I’m Jesse,” he introduces.

“Nicole, nice to meet you,” she says.

“Have we met before?” he asks, looking at her closely. She smirks,  

“Maybe,” she says.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you guys think!


End file.
